Beloved basketball coach at St. Margaret retires after 40 years

I love being around the game too much to not be involved in some way.”

Pat Woods, basketball coach

A lifelong Riverdale resident, Pat Woods spent the last four decades coaching varsity basketball at St. Margaret of Cortona and in early September, he hung up his clipboard and officially concluded his coaching career.

Woods, who grew up on 260th Street and Riverdale Avenue, learned the game of basketball from his father, Coach Joe Woods, first playing for him on his team and later, working for him as an assistant coach during his last season in 1983. Pat Woods became the varsity basketball head coach that same year. 

Woods attended the now-closed St. Nicholas of Tolentine High School, the same alma mater which produced late NBA player Malik Sealy, who later played for St. John’s University before being selected 14th overall in the 1992 NBA Draft.

In his tenure as head coach, Woods worked to instill values of respect, discipline, dedication, commitment, and punctuality amongst his players. 

“You needed to be firm when you were coaching these kids, but you also needed to be fair while also being encouraging and supportive,” Woods said.

In the 1986-87 season, Woods won his first and only Catholic School Basketball Association (CSBA) junior varsity championship.

“He was just an all-around good guy — a neighborhood guy with a great legacy, who always wanted to give back,” John  “KJ” Koch said of Woods, point guard on that ’87 championship team. “He also loves to see how far his alumni have come and how much they have grown since they played for him.”

Koch has coached basketball at St. John the Evangelist in Mahopac, NY for the past 12 years.

“He just leaves behind an incredible legacy — and he’s stayed my friend to this day,” Koch added.

Despite going undefeated with a 40-0 record in the 1990-91 regular season, including several tournament wins, St. Margaret’s was unable to win another championship, losing in the league finals.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to win that game, win the championship and complete the season undefeated,” Brian Downey said, who played center for Woods from 1989-91. “Despite the loss — the season was still a thrill, and [Coach Woods] was someone who you always loved playing for.”

Downey, who was previously an assistant coach at All Hallows High School on 111 E. 164th Street, has coached at Fordham Preparatory for the past ten years and also has nearly 30 years of coaching experience with the New York State Catholic High School. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Bronx Basketball Hall of Fame, established in 2022 and recognizes the top basketball players, coaches, referees and individuals from the borough who have influenced the sport of basketball. 

“[Woods] still asks me for [Fordham Prep’s] basketball schedule,” Downey said. “He’s someone who takes a lot of pride in his [player] alumni, and he makes an effort to stay connected with them and see how they’ve grown and evolved over the years.”

Nick Walsh alternated between shooting and point guard positions during his time on the varsity basketball team at St. Margaret from 2001-03, and has been the head coach of the Riverdale Country School girl’s varsity basketball team for the past seven years. He recalled attending practices every Monday and Wednesday in the early 2000s, and remembers what Coach Woods would say whenever a player would show up late to practice.

“He would say, ‘Just as a reminder — I run on Eastern Standard Time, I don’t run on Central Time,’” Walsh recalled with a laugh.

After their varsity basketball season concluded and they graduated, Woods would ask his former players to provide him with their season schedules so he could attend games at their high school, college and even coaching careers.

The basketball coach Woods idolized the most, when he began his coaching career, was former Marquette University head coach Al McGuire, who had previously been an NBA player for the New York Knicks in the early 1950s, and won a NCAA championship in 1977, his last year as Marquette head coach.

He also looked up to longtime legendary head coach at St. John’s University, Lou Carnesecca. He coached the institution’s basketball team for 25 years in two separate stints before retiring in 1992. Carnesecca died last month at the age of 99.

Woods mentioned Bronx schools -- St. Raymond Elementary School (with a middle school program) in Woodlawn, St. Helena School in Parkchester, as well as the now-closed Saint Barnabas High School, which used to sit in Woodlawn -- among the schools with great basketball programs which Woods said, generated some of the best competition.

“I think I’ll just go back to being a fan,” Woods said. “I love being around the game too much to not be involved in some way.”

In his post-coaching era and outside of basketball, Woods will continue working as a Local Union No. 3 IBEW electrician, a position he has held for 30 years.

As he says goodbye to the school he loves, Woods wanted to specifically thank the late Father Thomas Murphy for believing in him when he first started out, along with his parents, all his former players as well as the coaches and parents who helped him along the way to become a successful basketball coach.

“It’s been quite a ride,” Woods said. “To quote [the late] Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully when he retired — ‘Don’t be sad that it’s over, smile because it happened.”